Tea berries
~
Teaberry
Gaultheria procumbens
~
leaves shiny, thick
capsules waxy, red
aromatic oil
methyl salicylate
mint and wintergreen
tea soothing, blood thinning
creeping wintergreen
spice berry, drunkards
staggering over
the forest floor
~
~
Copyright Jane Tims 2019
~
All my best
Jane
Raspberries
It’s a great year for berries. Our blueberry bushes are loaded with the biggest, sweetest berries I have ever tasted. The raspberries are full and sweet. The blackberries are still mostly unripe but the canes are heavy with future berries.
~
raspberry ramble
~
every berry
a sweet cup
detached
from its cosy seat
deep in brambles
juice pressed
between teeth
seeds and briars
handfuls of sun
rain clouds
warm winds
gravel soil
eager fingers
~
~
Copyright Jane Tims 2019
~
All my best
Jane
moose
~
moose
~
square body
four hundred kilos
cow lifts her head, angular
stares at the car
~
long ears maneuvre
in all directions
no challenge
dewlap swings
~
cow returns to her business
prehensile lips
pulling leaves
and chokecherries
~
~
We saw this moose on the way to our cabin, about a kilometre along the road. She stared at us for a while, eyes and ears curious, but eventually she returned to her feeding.
~
All the berries are coming into ripe: chokecherries, blueberries and blackberries. At the cabin the blueberries are the largest and sweetest I have ever seen. Everywhere I picked showed evidence of an animal there before me. Not a moose. Perhaps a bear, not caring where he sat as long as he could scoop up those berries.
~
All my best, Jane
Copyright August 2019
blackberries
~
blackberries
~
floricanes bend
with August weight
shape an archway
show the path
~
through brambles
to lake
pergola unfastens
gate, entices
~
pickers
into wicked thorns
sweet indigo
temptation
~
primocanes snag
hems of gloves
ankles of socks
handles of baskets
~
angry scratch
for every berry
~
~
Copyright Jane Tims 2019
~
Hope you are enjoying this blackberry summer.
All my best,
Jane
root cellar
~
root cellar
~
over the hill
cold earth sequesters
seeps of water
and lichened stone
roots in dry sand
preserves on shelves
of rough-hewn boards
~
mice gnaw on the seam
of a gunny sack of corn
blue mold on the surface
of a jar of apple jelly
Mama just scoops it away
pumpkins never keep
past December
~
~
Copyright Jane Tims 2019
~
All my best,
Jane
dandelion fluff
~
dandelion fluff
~
purse lips
and puff
make a wish
scatter seeds
to wind
and follow
into sun
~
~
Copyright Jane Tims 2019
~
All my best,
Jane
Pearly everlasting
~
Pearly Everlasting
Anaphalis margaritacea L.
~
Pearly Everlasting
sign of summer’s passing
yet – immortelle
picked by the road
by the armload
hung from rafters
children’s laughter
runs beneath
~
downy leaf, woolly stem
white diadem
perfectly matched flowers
thatched in gold
dry and old
~
Linnaeus named
for Marguarite
memory sweet
paper petals keep
pale perfume
summer grace
in a winter room
~
~
Published as: ‘Pearly Everlasting’, The Antingonish Review 92, 1993 and at niche poetry and prose, August 20, 2012 here
Copyright Jane Tims 2012
~
~
All my best,
Jane
